1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to portable apparatuses operating by electric energy. Particularly, mobile telephones are concerned but also all remote control systems for apparatuses that can be remote-controlled, for example by a person carrying a corresponding remote control device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In portable apparatuses, such as mobile telephones, it is common practice to use a housing or a power block mounted in a removable or non-removable manner in the body of the portable apparatus. The user of the portable apparatus has to see to it that the power supply device of his apparatus is always operational so as to supply it with electricity.
There are different types of power supply devices notably using primary cells, i.e., cells which are non-rechargeable and discardable after use, and also secondary cells, i.e., cells which are rechargeable such as a rechargeable battery referred to as battery pack. Portable apparatus housings which are capable of accommodating either primary cells or secondary cells are thus known. In other words, the housing is formed to accommodate these two types of electric cells but the user himself must replace the cells of one type by those of another, notably replace used cells by new cells. On this occasion he may be liable to make a mistake when mounting the cells in the housing. It is therefore useful for him to have error-eliminating components so that he cannot perform the wrong mounting. It is to be noted that when a set of secondary cells such as a rechargeable battery is discharged, the user recharges them by a battery charger, which is generally delivered with the portable apparatus. When the power supply device no longer supplies electricity, several solutions are thus possible for the user, such as recharging the secondary cells, i.e., the rechargeable battery, when these are discharged, or using primary cells bought on the market, for example, when the user has forgotten the battery charger.
Such a device or power block is described in European patent application EP-0 858 172. The power block principally comprises a cavity in which the two types of cells can be placed. A first connector is intended to co-operate with a second connector incorporated with the rechargeable battery. However, a removable adapter piece is necessary to ensure the connection between the first collector and the primary cells when these are used and placed in the cavity. This necessitates the correct placement of this removable piece, which involves the manipulation of the latter and, consequently, the risk of losing or damaging it.
An essential first object of the invention is to remedy this drawback by providing a power supply device for a portable apparatus suitable for accommodating the two types of cells without necessitating the use or manipulation by the user of a removable adapter piece.
To this end, the principal object of the invention is to provide a power supply device for a portable apparatus, suitable for using different types of power supply and comprising a housing having a principal cavity which can accommodate two types of cells, i.e., either at least a primary cell having a given length, or a rechargeable battery, and in which two series of contact pins are present for contacting the cells or the rechargeable battery with circuits for using the portable apparatus, without using supplementary, removable, adapter elements.
In a principal embodiment of the invention, the majority of pins have a swan neck shape, thus allowing great flexibility without passing beyond the elastic limit of the material used.
However, to rigidify certain of these flexible contact pins, their extremity is preferably widened so that it can be fixed in the body for constituting prestressed contact pins.
First error-eliminating means are used for mounting the primary cells in the sense that a contact pin for a cell is placed on the bottom of a notch which is deeper than the contact pin itself, while the contact pin has a smaller width than the notch which in turn has a smaller width than the cell so as to allow the contact pin, which is present on a first extremity of the cell, to come into contact with the contact pin placed in the groove, but prevents the cell from being inserted by its other extremity.
In conformity therewith, second error-eliminating components are also used for mounting primary cells constituted by a wide, rigid contact pin placed between two first error-eliminating components and whose central non-conducting part is constituted by an abutment spaced apart from the edges of the notch of the contact pin of the corresponding cell which is smaller than the given length of the cells. In the latter case, the contact pin does not have a swan neck shape.
In a principal embodiment of the invention, a supplementary contact pin is used to identify the battery chargers, as well as an electronic circuit, allowing recognition of the battery chargers equipped with a component having a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) and connection of the rechargeable battery and the charge circuit situated on a printed circuit board of the portable apparatus intended to be connected to a charger.
A thermal switch is used in each rechargeable battery for protecting this rechargeable battery from excessive charging.
These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated, by way of non-limitative example, with reference to the embodiment(s) described hereinafter.